Hi there,
I have been signed up to this group for a while just taking in the
conversation.
But now would like your thoughts on the following...
I am in the process of writing an accessibility statement and would like a
recognized icon to link to this statement. By no means am I suggesting such
icon would be a 'quality mark'... just a recognized symbol used to identify
the existence of an accessibility statement on a website.
Does anything like this exist?
Do people feel there scope/need to produce something like this?
Regards,
Sonia
-----Original Message-----
From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org] On Behalf
Of Gregory J. Rosmaita
Sent: 23 July 2008 18:28
To: wai-xtech@w3.org; w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Cc: vic-nyc@columbia.edu; blind-dev@listserv.icors.org
Subject: LowBrowse: FireFox Extension for Low Vision from Lighthouse
Intenational
details at:
http://www.lighthouse.org/aboutus/press/press-releases/lowbrowse/
from which the following is excerpted:
<q
cite="http://www.lighthouse.org/aboutus/press/press-releases/lowbrowse/">
While existing programs enable blind people to access the web effectively,
LowBrowseT is the first program to enable people with moderate or severe
low vision to both view web pages as the original web author intended and
read the text on those pages tailored to their own visual needs. The
highly anticipated program, which runs in conjunction with the Mozilla
Firefox browser, will be offered at no charge and is expected to be
available to the public for download via the Firefox add-on site in late
summer or early fall of 2008. [forwarder's note: as of this posting,
LowBrowse is not yet available, but will be available from
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/ when it is released.]
LowBrowseT is part of a larger research project on low vision user
interface design headed by Aries Arditi PhD, Senior Fellow in Vision
Science at Lighthouse International, under a grant from the National Eye
Institute. "This technology enables all the text on a website to be
presented in the same readable format - size, color, font and spacing -
regardless of which page is being viewed and without having to navigate
to the next line," said Arditi, a vision scientist and an expert in web
accessibility. Dr. Arditi, who is the current president of the
International Society of Low-Vision Research and Rehabilitation, has
written more than 80 scientific publications about vision and is the
author of Lighthouse International's popular Color Contrast and Making
Text Legible publications (available at www.lighthouse.org).
Arditi vision and an added, "LowBrowseT emphasizes efficiency and
accessibility for the unique needs of people with vision loss. This
system further democratizes the Internet and empowers millions of
people with low vision."
LowBrowseT is important and useful for many reasons:
* Users spend a few moments configuring their preferences
(using a very simple procedure) for font, text size, color
contrast and letter spacing. Once the configuration is set,
no further adjustments will be needed on any web pages -
including pages with photos and graphics.
* LowBrowseT makes searching and skimming web pages for specific
information much easier than other accessible software.
* Semantic text features such as "link" color, italics and boldface
are preserved in the special reading frame.
* Users can easily enlarge images simply by holding down a button
and wiggling the mouse.
* Users with severe low vision can use LowBrowse'sT speech
capability.
* Users can simultaneously view the web page as the web author
intended it to be viewed and access the text (in a separate
reading frame), enabling visually-impaired users to appreciate
the very same view of the page that able-sighted users see.
* The program performs these functions in a consistent manner for
all pages on all websites.
* The program is very user-friendly, with few commands, making it
perfect for computer novices as well as tech-savvy users.
* The program is portable and can be installed in seconds on a
flash drive and downloaded from anywhere.
* The program will eventually be available in multiple languages
</q>
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You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of
focus. -- Mark Twain
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Gregory J. Rosmaita: oedipus@hicom.net
Camera Obscura: http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/
Oedipus' Online Complex: http://my.opera.com/oedipus
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